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Denver To Pursue 2022 Olympic Winter Games

DENVER (CBS4/AP)– The Denver Olympic Exploratory Committee voted unanimously in support of pursuing the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Wednesday.

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock released this joint statement, “We want to thank the Denver Olympic Exploratory Committee for their thorough, objective work to evaluate a potential Olympic bid. It is great news to learn about the Committee’s unanimous support of a bid and we deeply appreciate the research and expertise offered in the report. We will take due consideration of the report, which will inform our decisions on next steps.”

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Olympic Committee postponed its quarterly board meeting scheduled for Thursday after 40 members of its staff were forced to evacuate their homes because of wildfires burning near Colorado Springs.

Denver was awarded the 1976 Winter Olympics, but voters later rejected the idea over concerns about pollution and sprawl. Those games were eventually held in Innsbruck, Austria.

Communities around Lake Tahoe, Calif., have already expressed interest in hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. A host for those games won’t be announced until 2015.